“Next morning went over to investigate...Nothing but a few bloody shreds left.”
I shot a ground squirrel near my garden about a week ago. I was also very busy making tomato sauce, so I decided I’d grab a shovel and dispose of its body a little bit later. I went out to move it just before dark and it was already gone! Either a coyote, a fox, or maybe even a skunk found it in just the few hours it had been laying there, and hauled it off for dinner. Nature certainly doesn’t waste much.
Shot a squirrel that was raiding the bird feeders (chewing them up). Put the carcass out in the field for the resident hawk & the vultures found it first. In about 2 hours, the only things left were a skull picked clean ... so clean, it looked like it had been boiled to get the meat off, the tail, and the two large hind leg bones. Everything else was gone. I am still somewhat in a state of disbelief at how clean that tiny skull was - how in the heck do they do that with their beaks (?).